UltraNav SK-8845 Windows 8 drivers?

[artic_squirrel]

i received my keyboard.

here is the copy of the edit from some post below, in order to directly get the good drivers

edit FOR LATEST DRIVERS : even newer version works. the split happens between version 6hgx58ww.exe and 6hgx64ww.exe
6hgx58ww.exe = no tpmiddle, tp is not working at boot, but scrolling is good
6hgx64ww.exe = tpmiddle works, tp not working at boot, but scrolling is bad

so the usual trick of pasting a old driver on a new driver works: install the newest buggy driver like 6hgx64ww.exe, then unzip the non-buggy driver like 6hgx58ww.exe and paste the content in the folder C:\Program Files\Synaptics\SynTP

the link to those drivers are

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... gx58ww.exe
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... gx64ww.exe



original message:


All of the following is for windows 1809. With this windows, the keyboard, trackpoint and touchpad works out of the box, but of course they are seen as the generic mouse and is compatible with MarbleScroll to get the middle click. The trackpoint is hard to press, so I think http://07.net/mouse/ must be considered.

In order to configure the tp, synaptics driver must be installed and there is zero problem with tpmiddle and scrolling with the latest driver.

THe newest drivers are here
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... 0gx38w.exe
changelog is here
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... 0gx38w.txt


other drivers are:


for using the TP4table.dat, the good drivers are here
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... 02us17.exe
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... 02us17.txt
They use the scroll like the Ultranav of the old thinkpads, but of course, the file tp4table must be edited to get explorer working and all.
but those drivers are too old for tpmiddle0.6, so no middle click but good scrolling

Also, I disconnected the touchpad and the trackpoint still works with the synaptics driver. So there is zero issue with disconnecting the touchpad.


For hotkeys: the volume keys and the sleep work out of the box. the rest do not work, which does not matter. THe important keys are the volume and sleep.

Just to come back on the bug of the drivers post 6hgx58ww.exe , ie 6hgx64ww.exe and the really last n10gx38w.exe


it is actually not a bug nut it is VERY difficult to scroll purely vertically. So for instance, in a text or video, the cursor will move on the horizon, instead of purely on the vertical path.

Another funny thing is that if the driver thinkpad_usb_keyboard_with_trackpoint_112.exe is installed BEFORE the drivers above for synaptics, then the real thinkpad scroll is activated and there is no need for tpmiddle. however there is still the little bug about pure vertical scroll.
the real gui is also here [but it is removed if the synaptics drivers are installed afterwards], ie this one


Currently my setup is sk-8835/45 on w10 with driver n10gx38w.exe with stock options + marblescroll or w10wheel.net
so far it works.

[johnnycanuck]

Thanks for the update artic_squirrel.

I just recently received another SK-8845RC that I purchased as well. So I'm back to happily using it and the TrackPoint on my WIN7 Desktop machine again. (Much more usable for me, than the Lenovo chicklet travel keyboard I've been stuck with using after I managed to destroy my previous SK-8845RC ).

My next step is to get it working on a new WIN10 T460S ThinkPad as a 2nd USB attached keyboard. On WIN7, i still have the problem of not being able to disable the TrackPad (without physically disconnecting the cable inside the keyboard ... what I tried to do and managed to destroy my previous SK-8845RC).

Hopefully the information you've provided will help me get it running on my WIN10 ThinkPad as well ... and even more hopefully, the drivers I use will let me disable the TouchPad via driver/app settings this time (rather than attempting to disconnect its cable). Thanks again.

[artic_squirrel]

Thanks for the update artic_squirrel.

I just recently received another SK-8845RC that I purchased as well. So I'm back to happily using it and the TrackPoint on my WIN7 Desktop machine again. (Much more usable for me, than the Lenovo chicklet travel keyboard I've been stuck with using after I managed to destroy my previous SK-8845RC ).

My next step is to get it working on a new WIN10 T460S ThinkPad as a 2nd USB attached keyboard. On WIN7, i still have the problem of not being able to disable the TrackPad (without physically disconnecting the cable inside the keyboard ... what I tried to do and managed to destroy my previous SK-8845RC).

Hopefully the information you've provided will help me get it running on my WIN10 ThinkPad as well ... and even more hopefully, the drivers I use will let me disable the TouchPad via driver/app settings this time (rather than attempting to disconnect its cable). Thanks again.

with my 8845/8835 i can disable the trackpad with the drivers
https://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/p ... 0gx38w.exe ie the latest for w8
or the older

http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... gx58ww.exe
http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc ... gx64ww.exe

the gui is like this

but listed is ''touchstyk v1.13'' and ''synaptics touchpad v5.9''

in devmgmt.msc i see this once the synaptics drivers are installed


if you want to test drivers, beforehand, do an image copy of your SSD, or just C:, with macrium reflect FREE, so that you know you have a working backup. You can even back up w7, then install w10 quickly just to test, then restore the image of w7.

[johnnycanuck]

Thanks very much artic-squirrel, for all the information and suggestions for the process I can follow.

It will take me a little while to get it all sorted out, but I'm sure you've given me enough info to get the keyboard working on my new WIN10 / T460S. It's going to end up being my "daily driver" once I get stuff I want moved over from my WIN7 /M90P desktop.

Thanks again

[FragrantHead]

I wonder whether someone can help. I use these keyboards for gaming on a Windows 7 desktop. It's in my living room and I have the keyboard on my lap. I am a lifelong Trackpoint user and have, over the years, worn out two SK-8845s and one SK-8855. The new Lenovo keyboards aren't really suitable, because they don't have a palm rest anymore.

Imagine my delight when I found a batch of new-old-stock SK-8845s on eBay that didn't look like fake ones with badly printed keycaps from China. Sadly these keyboards turned out to be terrible. In terms of feel they are actually very nice. However they are of the type where the mouse appears as a single device in Windows, so you can't disable the trackpad. The trackpad has no palm rejection, so this is pretty important. They are also the type where, if you unplug the trackpad ribbon cable, the trackpoint stops working as well.

There is an ugly solution to disabling the trackpad, which consists of spreading blu tack over it, then covering that with sellotape. However the real problem is that the mouse periodically freezes. This happens regardless of having blu tack on the trackpad. On the other hand, I haven't seen the mouse drift. Normally, if you keep your finger on the trackpoint and move the mouse for a prolonged time, the trackpoint can start to drift. You let go and it recalibrates itself. It's not great, but I'm used to it. What these newer (manufactured in 2014) keyboards seem to do is freeze the mouse when that's about to happen. This is terrible, absolutely terrible for my application. It's also pretty bad when you scroll through a web page using the middle mouse button and have your finger on the trackpoint for a prolonged time.

The controller boards and trackpoints on my old keyboards are still working. The trackpoint and it's little circuit board is screwed to the bottom of the keyboard on those ones. In the new ones, however, this appears to be riveted and it also uses a much narrower ribbon cable. It doesn't seem possible to mix and match.

The n10gx38w driver does not work with these keyboards. The SK-8855 driver does, however it behaves the same as the default Windows driver. You still get the freezing. I'd rather the trackpoint drifted (if it must). Ideally I'm looking for a driver that would let me disable the touchpad, and only that, and which restores the calibration behaviour of the older keyboards. Probably slim chance such a thing exists, but if anyone knows, it'd be here, right?

In regard to my old keyboards: One of them I poured in some alcohol around the trackpoint buttons in a foolish attempt to clean underneath. This evidently dissolved some circuit traces and the buttons stopped working altogether. Those buttons are of one piece with the keyboard. I see no way of repairing them. The second SK-8845 I ran into the ground until multiple scissor switches failed at around the same time. The newer SK-8855 has an intermittent cable fault and I have no way of repairing or making up a new cable with that little connector, where it connects to the circuit board. This differs from the older keyboards. If you have any suggestions for repair, let me know, but I don't think it looks good.

[artic_squirrel]

I forgot to say that for the 8845 and 8835 from ibm ie with the real synaptics driver, the old drivers do not install automatically
the driver says ''no synaptics devices detected'', so you have to go to the directory created by the installer and then double click InstNT.exe and then it detects the 8845 fine.

[artic_squirrel]

The controller boards and trackpoints on my old keyboards are still working. The trackpoint and it's little circuit board is screwed to the bottom of the keyboard on those ones. In the new ones, however, this appears to be riveted and it also uses a much narrower ribbon cable. It doesn't seem possible to mix and match.

it seems that you describing the chinese 8845 with their thin cables and their rivet [check under the red trackpoint, normally for the chinese you have some rivet]
like you said for those you have the official driver of the 8855, there are several versions, like 8,9,10,12.
so either do not install any driver and try marblescroll or https://github.com/ykon/w10wheel and MiddleDragTrigger: Press Middle and Drag. (lock-free) or try various versions of tpusbkybdwtrackpoint_XXX.exe

[artic_squirrel]

i used also tp_compact_keyboard_1491.exe for one of the 8845, but i cannot recall for which version and if it worked on w10.

[artic_squirrel]

i have the t15 and now lenovo uses synaptics again, instead of elan like on the x390, which means the driver for the trackpoint of the laptop IS NOT compatible with the synaptics n10gx38w.exe.
Even worse, when the two drivers are installed, windows goes into BSOD, saying
''system thread exeption not handled''

so the solution is to NOT install the synaptics drivers for the laptop, currently at version 19, and still use n10gx38w.exe+eithermouse.exe (to set the speed of each mouse)+w10wheel.net to enable the nice scrolling

by the way, the official synaptics driver version 19 for the t15 trackpoint does not use the .dll used by tpmiddle.exe so you dont get the middle click with the nice scroll.. Marblescroll does not work either....